Robyn Orlin is South African but lives in Berlin. One of the most sought-after choreographers in the contemporary European scene, she is beloved in France and was, not long ago, the enfant terrible of dance in her country. From her earliest works, she has questioned the political and social dynamics of South Africa, still under apartheid at the time. Her commitment, which has earned her numerous international awards, has led to her being labeled a “national irritation.” Yet this did not stop her. On the contrary, Robyn has continued to create, infusing her works with pressing themes through a skillful blend of dance and text, images and objects, irony and humor.
Returning to Johannesburg in 2012 for a new project with young dancers from Moving Into Dance Mophatong—the city’s main contemporary dance school in Newtown—Orlin devised the corrosive and playful performance (with its usual lengthy title) Beauty remained for just a moment then returned gently to her starting position. This translates to La bellezza rimane solo un attimo poi ritorna gentilmente alla sua posizione di partenza. It is a love song to her city and her continent, which, as the choreographer explains, “is always portrayed as an arena of conflicts, illegal trade in arms, ivory, and drugs, a place of misery. But corruption, hunger, and death are everywhere, while in Africa, there is so much beauty, and it is everywhere.”
Beauty, indeed, is the heart of the work, nourished by the skill of the performers and the original costumes designed by fashion guru Marianne Fassler, made from reclaimed materials and societal scraps, along with the video imagery by Philippe Lainé. The young troupe from Mophatong, led by the protagonist Julia Burnham, will literally sweep the audience off their feet, who, personally engaged, will have to wake up, as happens in the suburbs of Johannesburg, to the clucking of chickens and will have to physically struggle, like fearful children, with the belief in the serpent that devours the little ones. Nothing more can be revealed about this snapshot of society and life that Orlin portrays unreservedly and with the full freedom that has always characterized her work.
